Speed Freaks

Brutal Truth dissects the secret of being a grindcore granddaddy

By Alex Distefano

Dan Lilker formed grindcore band Brutal Truth (which also features vocalist Kevin Sharp, drummer Richard Hoak and guitarist Erick Burke) in New York in 1990, after having spent the previous decade playing bass guitar in several seminal thrash/speed metal bands including Nuclear Assault, Storm Troopers of Death (S.O.D.) and even Anthrax, where Lilker played bass on the group’s 1983 debut Fistful of Metal.

But to those in the dark about grindcore’s sound, role in extreme music today and evolution from a hybrid of musical styles, Brutal Truth is often referred to as a pioneering band for the genre, influencing hordes of extreme metal bands to this day. It has managed to remain at the forefront of the grindcore movement; and although it’s an underground DIY band, it has built up a solid fan base by touring sporadically throughout the world. The band has a particularly big following in countries such as Chile, Japan and Australia.

Lilker took time to speak to CULTURE about the origin and context of grindcore, Brutal Truth’s new record End Times, his philosophy regarding cannabis and having a day job.

Do you believe we are living in “End Times”?

Well, all of the songs aren’t necessarily all about the whole New World Order, Doomsday and Apocalypse scenario. But, we all know that we’re living through global chaos, in the form of upheavals, wars and so on. But then again, throughout history there’s always those things going on and in certain countries. [There are] always some evil crazy dictators that get into power and wreak havoc on the people. Put it this way, with this album, we don’t want the world to end, but this is not our most positive record.

Brutal Truth has been known among many extreme metal fans, as being a pioneering grindcore band. But, back in the day when you guys first formed, was there even such a term as “grindcore”? How did the sound evolve, and what were the bands that inspired the scene?

Grindcore developed as a hybrid of half hardcore punk and half death metal. Brutal Truth was the first U.S. band to be called grindcore early in our career. It had the vibe of punk but the brutality of death metal, but it was faster; we just brought it up to the next level of speed and intensity. We loved all types of punk and death metal bands—that’s what grind was about. There were many bands that we were fans of, like Siege, Napalm Death, Repulsion, Carcass and many others.

Tell us your feelings on cannabis, and the whole idea of slower, doom metal bands being labeled “stoner metal”? Can’t any kind of metal be stoner metal?

Yeah, any metal band that loves to get stoned like us could be a stoner metal band. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But most people do think of slower, sludgy bands when they think of stoner metal. That’s something we hear a lot. But whatever, for us though smoking weed doesn’t necessarily slow us down, it can do the opposite lots of times. It makes us get more into our music. We experiment a lot within the realm of grindcore, and when we smoke weed and play extremely fast songs, there’s no logic behind it. Most people always think stoner metal is slow but people would be surprised at how many people smoke weed and play fast, brutal music.

www.myspace.com/brutalfuckingtruth.

For the Fans

As a touring band, Brutal Truth has many experiences with cannabis in other countries, as bassist Danny Lilker explains: “The last country I was in was Holland recently, when Nuclear Assault did a festival out there with a ton of other bands. Of course there you go all out. The coffee shops sell it, and it’s just great to be in a country where smoking herb is not a crime. But, but I have been to countries where it’s highly illegal, like Mexico and Brazil and Japan. The rule is always to not have it on long drives in the States when we tour, and always be cautious. We have common sense and keep it on the down low. We do love to smoke herb, but if/when we go to countries where it is forbidden by law, we honor that. At the end of the day, we are there to play grindcore metal for our fans, weed or no weed.